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Help Please MacBook Won't Boot

B

Benjer

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 30, 2006
90
7
Utah
Here is the issue with my MacBook:

Yesterday, it froze and I could not force quit anything, so I turned it off by holding the power key. Then, it would not start up. At first, it simply would go to the screen with the gray apple or go to the blue screen, but would sit there. Now, it the screen simply lights up (gray?), and sometimes a folder with a question mark comes up. My Apple Care ran out a little over a month ago, so I'm hoping it's a cheap fix, such as replacing the hard drive. Here's what I've tried:

  • Resetting the power manager
  • booting from the install CD (I got a folder with a question mark when I held down C to boot, and D for the diagnostic tools).
  • Letting it sit overnight, hoping the issue would magically resolve on its own

One note: when I try to start it up, there is a repeating quiet click that keeps going until I turn it off again. I would think I just need a new hard drive, but I'm not sure why I couldn't boot from the CD. My backup is Time Machine, not a clone, so no option there.

Any thoughts? How can I know for sure if it's the hard drive? If it is, any recommendations on what to get would be great, as well as a tutorial on replacing a hard drive on a MacBook. Thanks in advance for your help!
 
seems like you need a new hard drive but try this first

push the Power button, and immediately press and hold down the Command key and the S key as the machine starts up. This boots you into Single-user mode and you should see white text appear on the screen.
When you see the # command prompt, type /sbin/fsck –fy and hit Return. This could take 15 minutes or so,or even longer if things are really messed uped so be patient.
If and when you see the message “File System was modified,” repeat the step above again, and again, until you finally, hopefully, see a message saying, “no problems were found.” When that happens type reboot and hit Return
 
mine does the same thing, when I try booting from the disc or mac partition it doesnt go when I boot into my windows partition it works perfectly fine thats how im posting this right now Idk why I took it to apple today the guy said hes gonna give me a new hd
 
Kat King123, thanks, I'll try that as well.

BlueRevolution, what do you think it might be, then? If nothing works, I'm planning on installing a new hard drive just to see, to me it's worth the gamble just to see, rather than paying Apple to look at it. I also just moved a month ago, and so I don't know anyone here who can just take a look at it gratis for me.

Thanks all for the help. Fingers crossed.
 
It could be any number of things. If flashing the PRAM doesn't work, I'd take a look at the memory. Beyond that, there's not much you can do besides pay someone else to look at it.
 
If you are still under warranty call apple and see what they can do for you. If there is an apple store near you make an appointment at the genius bar to try to fix it.
 
I'd still take it to the genius bar if none of the other things work. Apple Genius's often repair things out of warranty, sometimes there are "known" problems and they will fix it.
 
Even if you are out of warranty, just take it into the genius bar and see what they can do for you.
 
Thanks all for the advice. I did take it to the Apple Store in Salt Lake and even though my Apple Care was up, they said there have been some problems with MacBook hard drives, and they replaced it for free. Chalk another one up for Apple's great customer service.
 
Kat King123 said:
seems like you need a new hard drive but try this first

push the Power button, and immediately press and hold down the Command key and the S key as the machine starts up. This boots you into Single-user mode and you should see white text appear on the screen.
When you see the # command prompt, type /sbin/fsck –fy and hit Return. This could take 15 minutes or so,or even longer if things are really messed uped so be patient.
If and when you see the message “File System was modified,” repeat the step above again, and again, until you finally, hopefully, see a message saying, “no problems were found.” When that happens type reboot and hit Return
Click to expand...



what happens if i never get the "file system was modified" message ?
 
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